To sell Palace for 1 gold ruble and after all to make 1 million gold rubles?!

dmilash (63)in #history • 8 years ago (edited)

This happened a long time ago. In St. Petersburg, the palace sold for one ruble almost 200 years ago.

House of Duke A. Lobanov-Rostovsky is close to St. Isaac's Cathedral. The house is known for its classic eight-columned portico and two marble lions. On one of these lions escaped from the flood in 1824 the hero of the poem, A.S. Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman." In people, this house is called - "the house with the lions."

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The palace was built in 1817-1820 by the architect Auguste de Montferrand (architect of St. Isaac's Cathedral) and served as the apartment house, a rental house. Depending of the level, there was placed typography, small shops, and lived cobblers, employees, artists and some of the nobles, as well as part of the premises of the house occupied by government agencies.

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It is not known for what reasons, but the Duke's family A. Lobanov-Rostovsky was in big debt. And the owner decided to sell the house. The house was put up for sale, but buyers were not found because of too high price. And then comes the duke a great idea - to organize a lottery. Was printed 1 million lottery ticket worth 1 ruble. It began marketing company "Palace in the capital - for a ruble!".

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The news of this lottery spread through the capital and far from it. This lottery was a very popular and it was discussed by all - peasants, workers, servants, nobles, etc. Russian Tsar Nicholas The First learned about this lottery. As a result, the palace was bought by the Russian government for 1 million rubles with the words: "Do not princely this action to do business!". Later in this house was located the military agency.

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